Brain Ooze

We take this commercial break from the Kota Kinabalu articles to tell you about this weekend. This weekend is going to be a very busy weekend for Penangites. If the island were to choose a good time to sink, it could be this weekend. We missed Bon Odori last weekend, we just arrived from KK and was dead tired.

This weekend, there will be a celebration to commemorate Georgetown as a UNESCO world heritage site. I almost had to go for duty. Long story short, I told the admin that I will need to make arrangements with the wife and call her back tomorrow. When I call the next day, she said some one else will be going. So I shall stay at home.

Also, it is St Anne’s feast this Saturday. Bukit Mertajam will be packed. What does that have to do with Penang? Well apparently, the pilgrims, after going for their prayers, will head down to the island…in BUSSES! Most of them come from far and wide. So since they are here, they will go to the island for some sight seeing.

if there is any better time to stay at home, this weekend would be it. But most of us will join in the festivities regardless. There is joy in crowds.

Thanks for your attention, back to regular programming.

Just behind the Promenade Hotel, there is a row of shop houses and apartments called the Api Api center. There seems to have everything there. Due to unforeseen humidity, we decided that we better get some laundry done while we can. We were sure that has to be a laundry shop in Api Api center. True enough, we found one while walking down the shops. Well it was also raining that time so we did get a little wet. It is unbelievable that although the Api APi center is just behind the hotel, the hotel does not have a back door that we can whisk ourselves there. We actually have to walk out of the front door, along the wet and flooded pavement at the side of the hotel and then cross a wide road to get to the Api Api center. Get there we did.

After getting the laundry sorted out, I asked the girl manning at the counter what was nice there. She recommended some place which I cannot catch the word. In Api Api center, there were like 4 indian restaurants, or what we would call “mamak place”. There was a Mcdonalds and some what looked like franchised restaurants like Singapore Chicken Rice.

Since it was quite early at that time, we decided to walk around the shop houses looking for something unique for dinner. We stumble upon Filipino Food! There was one that looked empty and more like a pub with closed doors. We then moved on, looking for more adventure and true enough, at the other end of the center there is another Filipino restaurant. This one has a more open concept and there are actually patrons there. To beat that, they had banners outside the shop with pictures of dishes and its names.. in ENGLISH!

The wait staff also speaks english. The restaurant boast that it is Filipino Owned and it is authentic Filipino food. When we sat down, there was one lady who came to entertain us. She explained the menu and recommended some dishes. From what gather hearing what she recommended and looking around, the soup is a must. Before we even go to the main dish, she kept asking us if we want to try the soup. She asked a few times as I was flipping the menu. So we got the soup. Next question was what meat! The soup is a sour soup and you can have either pork, beef or chicken with the soup. We choose pork.

It is a sour soup alright, it works the appetite up for the main meal. The pork is mostly fats! You know you will like it. The sourness of the soup comes from tomato and green chilis. I think might have put some vinegar in it. When it comes to foreign food, what I am most afraid of is a taste that is weird. A taste that I cannot make out. This soup is sour soup. Something that is familiar but foreign at the same time. Both of us, polished the pot dry, so to speak.

We also ordered mixed vegetable with chinese sauce. Mixed vegetable is a familiar food but the chinese sauce is not. It taste like the normal think chinese sauce that goes with vegetable but it is 5X more tasty. Taste more meaty the vegetables.

The last dish was something that I cannot pronounce even asking the waitress a few times. Translated, it is sweet and sour beef. The beef meat is tender and falls off the bones and the sauce is thick, spicy and a bit sour. If my memory serves me right, I think it is more sour than spicy. I would go for this again. Taste nice and we polished everything.

However, if you had go for Filipino food, I was later told that you should go for the fried pork leg. A while pork leg, fried and served with sauce. Apparently that is a must have Filipino food. We did not have that but Winnie said they have it in Kuching.

Just behind the Filipino Market also referred to as the handicraft market, you can see rows of people selling barbecued seafood. We Malaysians call it Ikan bakar. You can walk through the Handicraft Market from the main road and you can definitely see those stalls. They are just by the sea. the tables are arranged lengthwise. On one end of the tables, they will display their baked / barbecued seafood, Just like the picture below. With so many stalls, you first have to choose the stall that you want to go for. There are a little over 10 stalls there. I found that the of the seafood between the stalls almost the same. Even the seafood that they sell are almost the same between stalls. So what we did was to choose a stall that has the most people. They are open from 5pm onwards and we normally have our dinner here at 5.30 pm. Sounds early until you find out that sunset is at 6.30pm. After dinner, you head out to catch the sunset on the boardwalk nearby.

Do not be afraid to approach the stall that has the most people even though other stall owners are calling you. Though they may be fighting for business, I never find them harassing. The first time I walked past, I went to one of the stalls and asked for the prices of the fishes, crabs and squids. The person at the stall explained everything and I told her I would come back another day. She didn’t seem to mind. I also see a lot of people taking photos of the places and not eating. They will entertain anyone.

So what if you decide to eat at one particular stall? You see the fish or whatever seafood that fancies you. Points to it and the person at the stall will pick it up on a plate. You can, at this time ask for the price of the seafood before asking it to go on the plate.

The first time I went to eat here, pointing to a fish, I asked the lady what fish was this. She said it is white fish, Ikan Putih. Then I pointed to a red fish and asked her what fish is that. She said it is red fish, ikan merah. Ok, I get the point. They don’t care for the name. All they care about is the size of the fish and that is how the fishes are prized.

With the fish, you can choose to eat with white rice and plain water is free, if you dared to drink. They also make simple hot beverage like tea and coffee.

Look at the picture above. Those long things are really 6 inch long prawns. They cost RM25 a pop. Tempting as it is, they are too expensive for me. The smaller ones are Rm15.

Once you have selected the seafood that you want to eat, you take a seat while they take your selection for one final round of reheating. This ensures that you have a hot meal as well as making sure that the food is a little bit more safer to eat. You do wonder how long that fish has been sitting there while people walk past. The food is served burning hot. All the burning is done at the other end of the stall. You can see them doing the burning.

And these are the 6 inch prawns before they are burnt. Very fresh huge prawns. Despite the price, I see a lot of people eating these prawns. I guess if you have gone so far, all the way to the almost the tip of borneo, the least you can do is eat everything exotic.

We liked that place so much, we went there twice. Different stalls of course. The first meal, we ordered one medium sized fish and a crab. Fish was RM20, crab was RM10 a pop. What I find interesting was there was not particular sauce that you eat with the seafood. Well they do provide you with this chili sauce, top left in the picture above. The chili sauce is mostly vinegar, chili, garlic and onion. At least that is what I can taste. But strangely, they also have this compartmentalized plate which has lime, salt, sugar and cili padi. Then then is another basket of thick soya sauce, light soya sauce and vinegar. Then there are containers of seaweed, preserved vegetables, what looked like onions and so on. Those things inside the containers are condiments and they cost RM1 a box.

So what happens is that you are supposed to make your own sauce for the meal. Apparently different people have different taste and with the provided ingredients, they make their own concoction. With the meal, they will give you a 3rd plate which you are to mix whatever you want.

As an example, some locals sitting in front of me mixed dark soya sauce and cili padi into the 3rd plate. and on yeah, you use you finger to mix the stuff around. Neat.

We being tourist who have no idea how to mix things around, we just ate with the provided chili sauce.

On the second meal, 2 days later, I had what looked like a cuttlefish. RM7 this one. This is not chewy at all.

Everyone is also given a cup and a small basin (top right photo above). There are jugs of plain water, if you dare to drink. The cup is for the plain water and the basin is for you to wash your hands. Remember that, the basin is NOT for the kicap!. We were skeptical about the origins of the plain water but in the middle of a meal like that, water is necessary and we drank it anyway. So far, so good. But we did take some hep A and B shots before going there. Typhoid is what we were afraid of but so far so good. Everyone drinks the same waster and no one was harmed in any way.

And we also called 2 crabs. No rice. The crabs are so fresh that we extract the meat out from the shell by gently knocking the shell on a plate. These are sea crabs so they come ashore already dead. Freshness is essential. When a crab is fresh, the meat does not stick to the shell. Despite the method of cooking which may cause the meat to dry up, the seafood served were moist and tasty with a little burnt taste.

If you are in KK, this is ikan bakar is something you should not miss. Seriously, just ignore everything, trust your senses. You know you want it.

One thing I noticed in KK was despite all the demands that Sabahan politicians are making in the news, they are pretty laid back when it comes to the national agenda. For example, I can see from NTV7 news that the arrest of Anwar was a big deal here in Peninsular. In Sabah, the front page of the newspaper has picture of Anwar with the accompanying news. Then the following pages, it is more to local news. In fact, the biggest news during our stay was about a hit and run in Labuan. Apparently a teenager on a bike was hit by a Peninsular registered car and dragged for about 50 metres. He died on the spot.

Rest assured, the culprit surrendered after the police found the car dumped in some bushes. He did not have a driving license.

Now, that news was highlighted and followed for a few days as the case unfolds. Anwar only got one day of front page.

And no, there are no New Straits Times. No The Star. The peninsular papers do not reach there till noon. By then, no one bothers to get the papers already.

Truth be told. I find the lack of news from peninsular refreshing. There are no news of hopelessness, no stupid politicians as I can say. Also lack of news of how the new federal government is trying to get away or swindle the pakatan controlled states. The lack of depressing news and bad news.. is surprisingly refreshing. We get the Sabah Times delivered to our rooms everyday. It is refreshing to read what is mostly going on in the State. You get Bahasa Malaysia articles, English articles and even Kadazan articles. It is like having 3 papers in one.

Now that I get back here, all the newspapers can say are depressing things about the economy, politics and such. Nothing much about the good stuff going around the country.

Oh By the way, Sarawakians do not have stay restrictions in Sabah. I had to show my MyKad and keep this piece of paper that says I can only stay there for 60? days. Whereas Winnie showed her Mykad and walked out without that piece of paper. I do need to return that piece of paper when I leave the state. Just like Sarawak.

I hope this feel good feeling can last for another more month. I will be celebrating my birthday in Kuching next month. Winnie wants a short trip back to Kuching and I am tagging along.

Before I head out for Kota Kinabalu, I have heard that one of the places that I just had to visit is the Filipino market. This place is known to sell cheap local souvenirs and Pearls. Yes, pearls. One place that has it all. When I passed this market, I did not know it is THE Filipino market. It is a small, hot, dark, damp, cramped building by the side of the road and the only sign is that it is a “pasar kraftangan”. I didn’t know that it was the fabled Filipino market. Lucky Winnie remembered the market looking just like this in her travels to KK one decade ago.

For the benefit of the the rest, this is how it looked like.

Note the funky colour and the odd design. it is just by the main road and opposite the le Meridian Hotel. You cannot miss it.

There are a lot of stalls selling pearls. I actually wanted to buy some for souvenirs. But looking at how they are sold and the prices, I won’t dare. I can’t tell if they are real pearls. They are so abundant and also don’t know what is the market price for pearls. Like most markets in Malaysia, you need to bargain.

The place here is just so cramped and humid. Not a good place for window shopping as you need to squeeze through the crowd in the narrow lanes.

So history goes that this place was build by the UNHCR for the Filipinos, hence the namesake. At that time, things here were cheap because they cannot speak the local language. All they can do is raise the index finger and everything was one dollar. The cheapness of the local handicraft was what brought this place to fame. Nowdays, they trades are more educated. They can speak English and Bahasa. So you will need to know the prices of products before you start to bargain. Different stalls may charge differently for the same product.

Also. the shirt sizes here are American size, they call it the mat salleh size. L size is HUGE!

I see a lot of people go there to get pearls. Pearl necklace. Pearl Bracelets.

I went to get T-shirt.

I cannot get this song out of my head. Been in the head for a week now. Longest ever song stuck to my head. Need something to exorcise it. I find this tune very catchy.

I love Mike Rowe!

Needless to say, I am finally back refreshed from my honeymoon in Kota Kinabalu. I am still a bit tired, you can say a little jet lagged. Our flight back to Penang was at 7am. Which means we need to wake up at 4.30am and out of the hotel at 5.30 am. Thanks to the hotel, the checkout was smooth. We reminded them that we needed early transport to the airport at an ungodly hour. They arranged for a cab to be waiting downstairs and gave us a wake up call.

The trip was fantastic and eye opening as well. Sabah felt like another country while still being in Malaysia. We manage to enjoy ourselves a lot. As compared to stories from other people who went to other more developed country, ie Europe for their honeymoon, we did not have to save on food. Well some of the noodles dishes are like RM 4.50 in KK, but at least we did not have to eat bread the whole trip. OK, I maybe exegerating on this point. But the point I am trying to make is that I earn in RM and I spend in RM. Which means I can enjoy more without hurting the pocket. Besides, the seafood in KK is cheap and nice, we would not let ourselves go home without one meal at the seafood stalls. I am talking about the “ikan panggang” stalls behind the market.

After all, this honeymoon is all about taking a break together. We manage to eat most of the recommended dishes in KK. There are only so many meals you can have in the day. I am amazed at the variety of snacks available. Well, we live to eat, so you can see that we spent a lot of time there finding food and enjoying life.

Language was a bit of a challenge but not a problem. We were warned that most people there speak hakka. Wife knows a smattering of hakka and while I am a hakka, I can’t speak or understand hakka. But when we arrived there, most chinese speak mandarin to us. Which the wife can pick up a lot and I am still hopeless in. I think they speak mandarin to all chinese tourist and we do look like tourist with the cameras and bags. But tourist or otherwise, no one is out there to fleece us. We eat the same food at the same price as the locals. I looked around when I eat.

KK Town itself is small. 20 mins walk from end to end and only about 5 roads deep. So we did a lot of walking while we were there. We walked when we can and when we cannot, taxi stands are everywhere. To burn off what we ate, we walked a lot. From one end to another.

The sunset was fantastic, if it is not raining. It rained alternate days there. So there were some wet moments in our vacation.

You can be assured of more articles and photos coming up. Now I am back in the real world. Replying my work emails.

I will probably go back there again soon. Air Asia makes it so cheap and convenient.

For the second phase of the honeymoon, we stayed at the Radius International Hotel in KK. The promenade package was only for 3 wonderful nights, but we decided that we could use a different hotel so that we don’t get bored. I looked around a few places and found Radius hotel to be available through the web and is affordable.

They this hotel a “Boutech” hotel. I think it means that it is a boutique hotel and it is High Tech. What I like about this place, a fact that I only knew when I checked in, was that the hotel lobby has free WIFI and each room is provided with free wired broadband. Normally hotels will charge you an arm and a leg for wifi access.

One think I have to warn you is that for the name and style, this place is unique. It is hard to find, if you don’t know where to look. It is located in level 7 of Warisan Square. Yes, the whole hotel is in one floor. From the outside, the whole place looked like an office building. There are no signs outside to tell you where the hotel is. Although we passed the elevator that comes up to the hotel, we did not notice it.

Warisan square is a new complex which has a lot of franchise eateries and shops.

Just as you come out from the elevator, you will be greeted with a flat screen TV and some funky decor. Then you get off the elevator and look right, it looks like an entrance to an office. You look left and you see pretty girls sitting on desks, looking like office receptionist. There are no doors between the reception office and the elevator. It does not feel like a hotel. Seriously, it feels like an open office.

Picture above is the lobby and on the far end is the reception. The decor is clean and trendy.

It looks.. high tech.

But don’t be fooled. The place is very very small.

Even the rooms are small.

At the end of the day, what you get is a 3 star hotel and one should not forget that. There are no services here. The cafe is small, and we suspect maybe that is why their rooms don’t come with breakfast. It is on top of a mall anyway. Beside the hotel is sinsuran, a row of shops that has every type of food. Most of the rooms do not face out as in there are no windows, not that it matters since no one stays in the room long. They even advertise their hotel as a “no frills” hotel. So don’t expect a lot.

However, for the lack of amenities, they make up for their service. Since the place is small, the staff is friendly. They entertain all my request. When the aircond leaks water, they come immediately. You will need to pass reception to get into your room. They never fail to greet you with a smile. All their staff greet you when the walk past you. They duty manager sits across the reception and she is there 24 hours. The reception is also the operator so they basically handle everything. It is like a small community of staff here since this place is small and it works for them because they get things done fast.

Did I mention that the rooms are small? They look like it is meant for one person. I paid for a room with a view but I got a corner room so my view.. well.. is limited to that small windows beside the dressing table. The room beside me has a better view. They try to squeeze as much of their design into whatever building shape they have.

The bed is a queen and for to compensate for the lack of space, they really pamper us. We sleep on DOWN FEATHER pillow and quilt! It feels different! Those pillows are nice! We may want to change our pillows at home to down feathers. They are expensive pillows. Once you sleep on down feather pillows, cotton or foam just does not cut it anymore.

So for the lack of size and services, they make up with the quality of living.

They have this nice courtyard in the middle of hotel. Did I already mention that the whole hotel is in ONE floor! The decor is nicely done.

The reception looks like this. On the left, you would come out from the elevator and straight away you will see the receptionist. They have this open concept for reception. Just tables and someone behind it. No counters. This is good because we get very close with the staff there. Whenever you walk past them, they will greet you. Sometimes we pick up a chat with them, asking them were to get food. Most of the time, we complain about the room. You see, the aircond in my room leaks and it took them 3 tries to get it right. When they fix it the first few times, it was ok for a while then leaks again. Finally we told them that we are leaving for lunch and they can take their time with the aircond. It fixed it!

As a conclusion, this is at the end a very classy, comfortable 3 star hotel! Food is nearby and it is in a mall. Everything is nearby this hotel. When it rains, we just “mall hop”, moving from one mall to another mall to get to the market and food.

I have always had my hair cut by Indian barbers. I know a lot of people will cringe at this statement as with a lot of people I know when I told them that I cut my hair at Indian barbers. It is as if it is an unheard of thing to have your hair cut by Indian barbers. For me, it has always been that way. Every since I could remember I had my hair cut by Indian barbers.

To be fair, I tried a few times to get my hair cut by hair stylist. I can remember twice that I did so and it was not something I would want to do again if I had a choice. No offense to the hair stylist, as their job description says, they style the hair. I just want it cut and cropped. I feel that the hair stylist have a lot of pretentious cutting method. They take their time to cut the hair, snipping a little bit at the time with different instrument for each task. At the end of the day, I did not see any difference from when I started.

Indian barbers, they go straight to the point… electric razor. In less than 15 minutes, they are done with the hair. They only have 2 scissors, one for layering and one more for cutting. When I am done, I feel different. There is lesser hair on the head definitely.

Well today (as in last Saturday) was a holiday and I decided to drop Winnie off at her hair stylist and then proceed to my favorite Indian barber. It was late afternoon and not many people in the shop. I had a chat with the barber. He is just 17 years old, going 18, he proudly says. He was cutting hair since he dropped out of school after form 3. He said he earn a thousand plus a month cutting hair.

Not bad. Thousand plus. When I started work, after studying degree and all, is started with a thousand plus too. I told him that and he said he will earn more after he owns his own shop.

Ambition. I see some hope in this one.

A lot of people would not want to do menial job like cutting hair for the rest of their life. For this guy, he is not cutting hair his whole life, he intends to be a boss one day. Still cutting hair, but at least he can be his own man.

He changes me 8 ringgit, the normal rate and since it was a holiday and I am his last customer for the day, i gave him a 2 dollar tip to round it up. He said to me earlier that business is slow and he wanted to go home to enjoy the holiday.

I then headed back to fetch Winnie from the “perm parlour”. That is what they used to called hair stylist right. She was getting done. The tau keh neo (boss of the place) asked where I have gotten my hair cut. I said I got it done from an Indian barber and proceed to mention where. She looked at me and cast her doubt. She say no way an Indian barber can cut such hair. I told her, no really. It was from an Indian barber.

First time, I heard a professional hair stylist tell me I have nice hair. Kembang already.

Personally, if you know me, I have always had the same hair style. I don’t really care for style. Indian barbers keep the hair neat. That is all that matters to me.

Lighter head for the vacation. Literally.

I am still in my honeymoon. You are reading this because of a cool feature in wordpress called scheduled posting!

It is actually a freaky feature really. Right now you are reading some boring post that I have written a week ago and it is sitting in the system for one week. Of course, I am telling you stories of things that happened one week ago.

But what strange thing would happen if I do try to predict the furture and post it one week earlier.

I don’t want to go there